Heat. 



Soiii 



BOTAKV. 



JAPAN. 



is very changeable, and fubjed to frequent rains, fertilizing the 

 ground, as they do thatof our ifland. Thunder is frequent, and 

 earthqviak.es fo common, as never to be minded, unlefs attended 

 (as has been often the cafe) with dreadful confquences. 



The fummer heat is very great, and fcarcely toIerable> when 

 not alleviated by the winds ; it fometimes, in yu(y and Augujly 

 raifes Fahrenheit^ thermometer to lOo'. The cold on the contrary 

 is exceflive, and finks the mercury raany degrees below the 

 freezing point, efpecially when the winds blow fronv the north 

 and the eaft ; in the northern parts there are mountains fcarcely 

 ever free from fnow. 



The whole empire is mountanous, level meadows are un- 

 known; the fields of the vallies confift of a clayey foil, fometimes 

 fandy, yet rendered fertile by the incredible induftry of the in- 

 habitants ; even the higher hills are cultivated to the very 

 tops. 



In my account of the objecfls of their labor, and the botanical 

 produdlions, I fliall follow that able naturalift and traveller Dodor 

 J'hunbergi who vifited this empire in 1775, and even had the 

 happinefs of making a journey to its capital Jedo ; as yet we have 

 only been favored by him with the Flora of the country * ; I Ihall 

 not purfue the brief account of the vegetable prod unions fyftema- 

 tically, but clafs them as Do<5tor Tbunberg has done, according to 

 theirufes. Japan has been fortunate in having been vifited in 1699 

 by Doaor Engelbert Kaempfer^ one of the ableft naturalifts and 

 fcholars of his time. His Amcenitates exotica^ and his travels into 

 this empire, render any other eulogium fuperfluous. He will 



» A tranflation of his travels was publilheJ in 1795, two years after this account aS Japan 

 was compoi'cd. E. 



be 



